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Post by llamaoftime on Jan 4, 2023 10:03:25 GMT -6
Considering a little weekend trip out to Nashville which I've never been to, although it may be derailed by just how expensive lodging is there. Every hotel around downtown is absolutely ridiculous. Are there any out of downtown neighborhoods to look at staying in anyone would recommend? And I feel like I see the hot chicken places debated and I know I want to try at least one of them, any thoughts on which? This would just be a Friday to Sunday trip edit: food and drink recs have been asked a few times in this thread which I searched and found so I have some of those but if anyone has any recent updates (most posts were from 2017-2019) I'd be interested East Nashville/Five Points is the area you want to stay in. Lot of great dive bars within walking distance. Be sure to check out Dino's which has my name on the wall. As for hot chicken Prince's is the OG, Hattie B's is the touristy trap that people are too pretentious to admit is actually good, but my favorite is 400 degrees. no idea if the franchised Hattie B's compare to the original but we are getting one in Houston sometime this year so less tempted to do that one thanks for the rec. When I get into Dino's I'll tell them you sent me |
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Post by c1916 on Jan 4, 2023 15:17:00 GMT -6
Got caught in a continuation of the Southwest snafu today.
Apparently, storms in the South put the kibosh on a bunch of flights out of Midway this morning. I was actually on my plane when they cancelled the flight. While waiting in line to speak with an agent to rebook, they get on the intercom and say "You don't need to talk to an agent...Do it yourself on the app."
OK...did that, put my wife on a later flight out and pay for it using miles while I wait for the agent to transfer our original reservation over (the app also wasn't able to do that...), but I travel as her companion for free...and the app also won't let her book a companion. So, booked myself the same flight using miles.
Got to the front of the line and the agent can't help because now the flight we put ourselves on is sold out. Right...I get that, I don't need a seat...I've got seats on the later flight. I did what you said, I'm happy with my flight. All I want is the administrative accounting cleaned up. I need the miles my wife paid for the replacement flight refunded and my miles refunded as companion.
Nope...can't do that. You booked your own flights, it's not our problem anymore. You FUCKING TOLD ME to book my own flights jackass (OK...that part was in my head, all I could really do was laugh). Thanks for nothing...
If I'm lucky the after-effect of last week's problems will encourage them to act on my claim (which I now have 6 hours of airport time to generate and file), but...any corrective activity coming from those troubles is obviously still deep in the pipeline. We like Southwest and have a shit ton of miles as well as the companion pass, so we're not going anywhere, but I may not believe what I hear from a gate agent for the foreseeable future. YMMV.
Also...weirdly got turned away from the TSA Pre-Check Checkpoint for trying to travel with a Passport. What?? "Sir, I need you to give me an ID." My Passport isn't an ID? "Sir...I don't need your questions, I need you to give me an ID" So I dig out my license (not a RealID) and she took that, but what in the literal fuck?
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Post by scoots on Jan 4, 2023 15:40:40 GMT -6
That's bullshit.
Southwest is getting sued right now for not offering refunds to customers last month even when pushed to offer a full refund, so this all sadly tracks.
I booked a flight through Frontier against my better judgment for a friend's bachelor party in April (super cheap, plus direct) and got an email last week saying there was a "slight change" to my itinerary. The slight change was bumping up my flight time 10 hours. They wouldn't offer me a full refund so I ended up losing some money after cancelling. Worst airline.
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Post by scoots on Jan 12, 2023 16:28:53 GMT -6
Just rented a house in the mountains for an impromptu weekend trip starting tomorrow. We'll be at 10,500 feet in the middle of a forest, so what could go wrong.
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Post by Tweet on Jan 14, 2023 16:43:47 GMT -6
Hoping the board at large can enlighten me here
The group I went to the baseball hall of fame with last summer decided on our yearly baseball themed trip to see the Chicago White Stockings take on the Boston Red Stockings. The 3 of us have never been to Boston. I was trying to book a hotel or something for the weekend of that series, September 21-24, and everything is stupid fucking expensive. Why is that? If that's just the way things are in New England in The Fall then fine, whatever, but if there's some tourist deathtrap thing happening the 3 of us are very not into that and would reschedule the trip. A cursory google search turned up nothing but I probably could've looked harder if this was some immediate thing.
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Post by mookie on Jan 14, 2023 17:07:37 GMT -6
Hoping the board at large can enlighten me here The group I went to the baseball hall of fame with last summer decided on our yearly baseball themed trip to see the Chicago White Stockings take on the Boston Red Stockings. The 3 of us have never been to Boston. I was trying to book a hotel or something for the weekend of that series, September 21-24, and everything is stupid fucking expensive. Why is that? If that's just the way things are in New England in The Fall then fine, whatever, but if there's some tourist deathtrap thing happening the 3 of us are very not into that and would reschedule the trip. A cursory google search turned up nothing but I probably could've looked harder if this was some immediate thing. Boston hotels are definitely higher on average than most other cities. The good news is like NYC, their subway system is great and gets to most part of the city pretty well. So you don’t need to stay anywhere near the park necessarily. if you have time in the trip, I highly recommend the Museum of Fine Art there. It’s in my top 3 museums with the Art Institute and MOMA |
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Post by claypoolfan on Jan 14, 2023 17:24:34 GMT -6
I haven’t gone back to Boston since I graduated college specifically because the hotels there are, without fail, absurdly expensive all the time. Doesn’t matter what time of year.
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Post by Tweet on Jan 14, 2023 18:55:09 GMT -6
Ok I can deal with "shit's just expensive over there" thank you pals
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Post by llamaoftime on Jan 19, 2023 12:28:52 GMT -6
We got the previously mentioned Hawaii trip booked out now for January. 1/20 to 1/24- Waikiki on Oahu 1/24 to 1/26- Big Island, staying right outside Volcano National Park* 1/26 to 1/30- Maui, staying on Kaanapali Beach Will have a car the whole time. Now just got to book the actual things to do. *- if that volcano going off right now doesn't make it unvisitable. I guess if it does we'd add a day to Waikiki and a day to Maui This is tomorrow! I'm pumped! Itinerary in short. We are keeping the Big Island part of the trip, should be plenty safe to go 1/20- arrive around 230 PM, relax for a bit and walk around Waikiki, meeting some of my GF's family friends for dinner 1/21- Hanauma Bay early (good call mookie on going here our first morning), lunch at Fete, day in Waikiki, drive out to Haleiwa Joes for dinner, possibly go out for drinks after or sleep 1/22- Explore the North Shore during morning and afternoon, Pearl Harbor tour booked at 315, dinner at Hy's Steakhouse 1/23- Diamond Head in the morning, casual lunch, either drive around the part of the island we hadn't been to or go to the beach some more, dinner at Wasabi Bistro 1/24- fly to Hilo, check out Akaka Falls, get groceries, get to Airbnb (which is a sweet looking cabin right outside Volcano National Park) 1/25- Volcano National Park exploration 1/26- Drive to Kona, possibly stop at Punaluu Beach and/or Pu'uhonua o Honanuanau on the way, flight at 230 to Maui, dinner at Huihui by our hotel in Maui, relax in the evening 1/27- Road to Hana day. If we're not too tired then sunset viewing at Haleakala National Park 1/28- Explore West Shore (Kihei area), Feast at Lele for dinner which is a luau type of thing with a meal and an open bar for 3 hours 1/29- Relax day, black rock beach (right across from our hotel), enjoy hotel which has some activities, nurse possible hangover from previous nights open bar 1/30- travel home |
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Post by sthubbins on Jan 19, 2023 12:45:43 GMT -6
sounds great. good luck with Hanauma -- when we were there in June it was a shitshow getting in even with advance tickets and arriving right when it opened. Much crazier than when I went several years ago. But we did eventually make it in. Just a heads up!
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Post by llamaoftime on Jan 19, 2023 12:48:01 GMT -6
sounds great. good luck with Hanauma -- when we were there in June it was a shitshow getting in even with advance tickets and arriving right when it opened. Much crazier than when I went several years ago. But we did eventually make it in. Just a heads up! thanks for the heads up, was hoping arriving when it opens would help but it will be a Saturday so that could be brutal. We didn't do advance tickets (maybe a mistake?) so if its a mess maybe we'll pivot edit- this prompted me to look and it does say you need advanced reservations to watch the instructional video, and that's apparently all sold out even though it just opened up today. welp. might pivot this to another day or cut it |
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Post by ten15 on Jan 19, 2023 15:12:02 GMT -6
Hope you have a blast!
Feast at LeLe is fun, even if it is a bit touristy/cheesy.
Would you watch the sunset at the top of Haleakala? We saw the sunrise there and the drive was quite...something. Not sure I would want to drive down in the dark...
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Post by sthubbins on Jan 19, 2023 15:16:38 GMT -6
Doing Haleakala the same day as the road to Hana would be very ambitious (and exhausting). We initially planned to do the same but I'm glad we didn't. Lots of narrow windy roads on both, and you'll want to allot time on the road to Hana to stop at overlooks and such.
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Post by llamaoftime on Jan 19, 2023 16:33:25 GMT -6
Doing Haleakala the same day as the road to Hana would be very ambitious (and exhausting). We initially planned to do the same but I'm glad we didn't. Lots of narrow windy roads on both, and you'll want to allot time on the road to Hana to stop at overlooks and such. Yeah I think there's a decent chance we don't do Haleakala on the same day, it sounds like Road to Hana will be more than enough to fill the entire today. Definitely not cutting Road to Hana short for it, it was more like a if there's time and we're up to it sort of thing Hope you have a blast! Feast at LeLe is fun, even if it is a bit touristy/cheesy. Would you watch the sunset at the top of Haleakala? We saw the sunrise there and the drive was quite...something. Not sure I would want to drive down in the dark... Yeah I figure that Feast thing would be a bit touristy and cheesy but that one looked slightly less so than some of the other options around there and gf was all in for it. Glad to hear from someone whose done it. Sunrise requires reservations and decided against it because I didn't want to lock us into waking up that early. Honestly I'm thinking it might just get cut all together, I think we'll be plenty busy |
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Post by rango420 on Jan 25, 2023 10:53:05 GMT -6
Has anyone traveled on Viva or Volaris to Mexico? Is it worth an extra $100 bucks to just fly united?
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Post by claypoolfan on Jan 25, 2023 13:42:58 GMT -6
Has anyone traveled on Viva or Volaris to Mexico? Is it worth an extra $100 bucks to just fly united? We flew to Mexico City on Volaris last year. We paid more for exit row seats and it was still at least that much cheaper to fly on it vs the major carriers. We didn't have any issues with it but maybe we got lucky. |
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Post by ultravisitor on Jan 26, 2023 8:08:36 GMT -6
People, I have a friend who now lives in Madrid, so I'm pretty sure I'll be going to Madrid this summer. However, I'd also like to go to the beach while I'm in Spain, so I'm wondering where else I should go. Barcelona is obviously an option, but I just want to spend maybe three days somewhere close to the beach before going to Madrid, and I feel like Barcelona deserves more time. I'm considering one of the Balearics or Valencia. Anybody been? Any suggestions?
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Post by venom on Jan 26, 2023 8:27:01 GMT -6
People, I have a friend who now lives in Madrid, so I'm pretty sure I'll be going to Madrid this summer. However, I'd also like to go to the beach while I'm in Spain, so I'm wondering where else I should go. Barcelona is obviously an option, but I just want to spend maybe three days somewhere close to the beach before going to Madrid, and I feel like Barcelona deserves more time. I'm considering one of the Balearics or Valencia. Anybody been? Any suggestions? the trouble with the main valencia beaches is they're right next to the seaport. there's a wall between, but i'd still consider going to a beach farther out for a better experience. if you can get out to the balearics (coincidentally, probably taking a ferry from one of those valencia ports), that's better. formentera has some very nice beaches that shouldn't be quite as crowded as those on ibiza. |
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Post by krentist on Jan 26, 2023 8:45:47 GMT -6
People, I have a friend who now lives in Madrid, so I'm pretty sure I'll be going to Madrid this summer. However, I'd also like to go to the beach while I'm in Spain, so I'm wondering where else I should go. Barcelona is obviously an option, but I just want to spend maybe three days somewhere close to the beach before going to Madrid, and I feel like Barcelona deserves more time. I'm considering one of the Balearics or Valencia. Anybody been? Any suggestions? Have you thought about San Sebastian |
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Post by ultravisitor on Jan 26, 2023 8:54:36 GMT -6
That's why I'm asking! I keep forgetting about other places to consider.
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Post by krentist on Jan 26, 2023 9:15:35 GMT -6
I have no experience with the beaches there as I went in November but I do know it's known as a beach town in the summer and I can affirm the rumors that the food there slaps
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Post by krentist on Jan 26, 2023 9:18:56 GMT -6
when is their film festival? You might get to meet Woody Allen
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Post by teekoh on Jan 26, 2023 9:24:18 GMT -6
Second San Sebastián, though we were also there in November and I hate beaches.
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Post by kb on Jan 26, 2023 11:06:32 GMT -6
has anyone stayed at any scottsdale resorts? since i'm off work i'm going back to phoenix in a few weeks to stay with my bro and see his baseball team and might stay at a resort by myself for a night.
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Post by ultravisitor on Jan 26, 2023 11:20:28 GMT -6
I stayed at one of the resorts at Camelback years ago. It was pretty great. Scottsdale Camelback Resort maybe? Either that or the Marriott.
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Post by kb on Jan 26, 2023 11:23:58 GMT -6
thanks, i'll look into it. there are so many resorts, kinda hard to choose.
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Post by alady on Jan 26, 2023 11:29:21 GMT -6
I stayed at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess years ago for a work retreat, I remember thinking it looked a bit dated at the time but it looks like it's been renovated fairly recently.
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Post by kb on Jan 26, 2023 11:38:23 GMT -6
did you like otherwise? this one has my heart aesthetically, but not sure how amenities and all that stuff compare to others. |
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Post by alady on Jan 26, 2023 11:46:22 GMT -6
Ohhh yeah that is definitely more yr vibe. The Princess was more like heavy wood, Mission style, definitely very nice maybe even verging on posh but you would probably be the youngest person there outside the staff.
Pools and grounds were gorgeous though.
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Post by rango420 on Jan 26, 2023 13:00:28 GMT -6
I doubt you will stay at the Sonesta at Gainey but I'd avoid the Sonesta at Gainey. Our battery was out on our door and there was no mechanic on call so some guy would come up and replace another battery that would also die in 45 mins. Everyone was very friendly tho Scottsdale's a weird place
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